Victims" Anger As Clegg Backs Boss of Abuse Inquiry: Deputy PM Says He Has "Not Heard Anything" to Suggest She Is Wrong Choice for the Role
By Sam Greenhill and Jack Doyle
Nick Clegg was condemned by sex assault victims yesterday for giving his support to the under-fire chairman of the Government’s child abuse inquiry. The deputy prime minister offered his backing to Fiona Woolf, who faces mounting pressure to quit over her friendship with Lord Brittan, a possible key witness at the inquiry. Mr Clegg said he had ‘not heard anything’ suggesting she was the wrong choice for the role. But survivors of abuse, including one of his old schoolfriends, accused him of being on ‘a different planet’. Ian McFadyen, who was subjected to violent sexual assaults by two male teachers at Caldicott School in the 1970s, when he was in the same year group as the future Liberal Democrat leader, is spearheading the drive to have Mrs Woolf removed as inquiry chairman. After the deputy prime minister backed Mrs Woolf, Mr McFadyen wrote on Twitter: ‘I’m sorry Mr Clegg, do we live on a different planet?’ Mr McFadyen is behind a High Court challenge demanding a judicial review of Mrs Woolf’s appointment. His lawyer David Burrows told the BBC that corporate lawyer Mrs Woolf, the Lord Mayor of London, ‘cannot be seen to be impartial’ because of her connections with Lord Brittan – the former home secretary who denies failing to act on a dossier of paedophilia allegations he received while in office in the 1980s. There is a growing chorus of victims of sexual abuse, their lawyers and MPs calling for Mrs Woolf to quit. They say she cannot lead an independent inquiry because she is on ‘dinner party terms’ with Lord Brittan, her neighbour in Pimlico, Central London, and he is likely to be a key witness. Peter Saunders, of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said: ‘Her position is untenable. She has a strong connection to Lord Brittan, who will play an important role in the inquiry. ‘And anyway, she is a corporate lawyer, a member of the Establishment, when what is needed is a criminal judge or a former police chief. We are dealing with an inquiry into serious organised crime.’ Another survivor of abuse, Andi Lavery, said: ‘It is a complete and utter travesty. Fiona Woolf is not a fit and proper person because she knows Lord Brittan. Everyone knows a judge or juror cannot stay on a case if they are on personal terms with one of the witnesses.’ Last night Mrs Woolf was handed a list of ten detailed questions by a powerful Parliamentary committee. Labour MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, asked for answers by next week about missing information from her account of her relationship with Lord and Lady Brittan.
Mr Vaz requested to see the ‘first draft’ of Mrs Woolf’s letter to Home Secretary Theresa May, published on Tuesday, and which she admitted was written with the help of Home Office officials. And he asked her to name the official to whom the draft was sent. The explosive letter was her account of her relationship with the Brittans, and detailed their five dinner parties at each other’s houses. He also questioned her about the amount of time she had to work on the inquiry – Mrs Woolf still holds the office of Lord Mayor of London until later this year – as well as what steps she was taking to learn about child abuse, after she admitted she had no experience whatsoever on the subject. Mr Vaz also asked whether a legal challenge to her position as chair could delay the start of the inquiry. Other questions related to matters raised by members of the committee at Tuesday’s hearing.
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